Ayres and Klass's Studies in Contract Law (9th Ed):
Having determined that the parties' agreement is enforceable as a contract and the legally relevant writings or other communications, the next question is to determine their obligations created by those writings or other communications. Insofar as those obligations are chosen, a court or other adjudicator will look to the words they used. Corbin helpfully distinguishes two stages in this process:
By "interpretation of language" we determine what ideas that language induces in other persons. By "construction of the contract," as the term will be used here, we determine its legal operation--its effect upon the action of courts and administrative officials. If we make this distinction, then the construction of a contract starts with the interpretation of its language but does not end with it; while the process of interpretation stops wholly short of a determination of the legal relations of the parties.
Arthur Linton Corbin, 3 Corbin on Contracts: A Comprehensive Treatise on the Rules of Contract Law § 534 at 7 (1951).
Although courts and commentators often use the words indiscriminately, it is worth keeping the difference between the two processes in mind. Interpretation aims to discover what the parties meant, construction the legal effect of that meaning.
(See also: Interpretation and construction 3: Arthur Linton Corbin — Greg Klass)
Liệu nên dịch “interpretation” là “giải thích”, còn “construction” là “xác định hiệu lực pháp lý” sang tiếng Việt?